Former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan Natale Bellocchi passed away this past week at his home in Maryland. He was 88. The institute, known as AIT, is the top organization in charge of US relations with Taiwan in the absence of official diplomatic relations between the two sides. Bellocchi was head of the AIT from 1990 to 1995.
In Taipei, the foreign ministry remembered Bellocchi for his contributions to US-Taiwan relations over the past decades. The opposition Democratic Progressive Party also paid tribute to the diplomat.
It was during Bellocchi’s time working at the US embassy in Taiwan in the 1960s, before diplomatic ties were broken off, that he met his Taiwanese wife Liu Li-lan.
After his retirement as foreign diplomat in the US, Bellocchi continued to speak out in support of Taiwan. He kept a column in a Taiwanese newspaper, but he was rarely seen at public functions in Washington DC after he injured his back a few years ago.
It was during his term that Taiwan’s President Lee Teng-hui made a historic trip to the United States to give a speech at his alma mater, Cornell University.